About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

2 Comments

matteoJuly 5, 2006

Hi, this is Matteo from Italy. Excuse me for my bad English, of course. I think many of the players who play for the team that (maybe) will be punished for the scandal, will keep on playng in Serie A. That’s because Inter did not take part to the scandal and, as we know, Massimo Moratti (Inter owner) always spends a lot of money to have the best players. Maybe, some of them will play abroad, but in Spain more than in England. I don’t agree to your analysis of the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-5-1). Why do you think it gets the matches boring? You know, football is a game in which you have to win, but for winning, you have also to defend your goal. Look at Italy’s WC: only 1 goal taken, just because of our defence. I think it’s better to win attacking and defendins as well as you can, instead of playing like Real Madrid does. Real Madrid which is the example of a team that is only thinking about scoring but does not work on improving his defence. Surely, I don’t think football fans could like matches with a lot of goal that are made just because of the weekness of the defenders. Best regards Matteo (I repeat: sorry for my horryble English)

Your English is excellent (and a million times better than my Italian).

You’re right about the probability of most of the Italians joining Spanish sides than English ones, but I predict a fair few of them to cross the Atlantic to play in the chilly English climate.

As for the 4-5-1 formation, sorry but this is harder for Italians to understand why the rest of the world prefers a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or any formation other than 4-5-1 (or 4-3-2-1). At the end of the day, it’s more exciting to see a team attack than defend. Sorry!